The AFL has cautiously entered into a new one-year deal with the AFL Coaches' Association with a view to the industry body becoming less financially reliant on the league in future.

With the AFL and the players still significantly apart in their pay dispute, football boss Mark Evans and AFLCA chief Mark Brayshaw on Tuesday agreed on a short-term agreement for 2017, which is worth about $900,000.

The previous deal struck between Andrew Demetriou and Brayshaw's predecessor, Danny Frawley, ran for five years.

The AFL grant – the same amount as 2016 – has come with new conditions from Evans who has called upon the coaches to reshape their so-called "growing the game appearances" to work more closely with the AFL's game development strategies.

Brayshaw said the coaches had embraced the new agreement.

"Our members have said they'd like to do more for game development," he said.

"We've already moved our Sydney-based coaches into school programs and we're looking to do more in terms of multicultural development, working with academies, pathway coaches and mentoring programs."

Under the AFL grant the 18 senior coaches each receive $3750 annually for professional development while about 160 assistant coaches are granted about $1000.

The AFL deal also funds Brayshaw and his team to mentor coaches, help develop the recently introduced level four program and oversee their rules discussions and agreements with broadcasters and AFL Media.

The coaches association underwent a facelift in 2014 when Alastair Clarkson orchestrated something of a coup installing Brayshaw and reshaping the AFLCA board.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has worked to improve the coaches' relationship with head office and include the coaches in semi-regular discussions and debates over rules and game style.

The senior coaches and club chief executives will dine together in Sydney on Thursday night on the eve of the 2016 national draft with the coaches coming together the following day to discuss any potential amendments to the laws of the game.

This article was originally sourced from SMH.